To be honest, I was deceived by popularity and great animation of this series.

There’s a long review coming…..

About the STORY
There was nothing new about the story. A typical harem accompanied with gigantic bouncing boobs of girls who would always show it to the male lead. Harem type of story is one of my most hated genres of all. It is always about a boy who would be surrounded by so many girls and usually they are the ones who protect the boy. And the indecisiveness of the boy is another irritating thing. In this series, like always the boy needed physical contact with the female leads as so they can transform and power-up. And to make the complete cliché of all, the girls were always doing lewd things or exposing themselves to the male lead. I mean come on! What is so amazing about a large number of girls fighting over one single guy? One of the irritating thing, the drama was too over-the-top. The dialogues were also so damn cheesy and too dramatic. It’s not touching at all and worst, it became so irritating. The plot and storyline is not interesting at all. It’s very much like, “I’ve seen that before” . The main plot seemed very interesting at first but it was not realized at all until the series ended.

About the CHARACTERS
Of course, the characters were also too cliché. A guy so indecisive and so naïve that he was easily manipulated. He was always protected by his samurai girls and he was supposedly an amazing person enough to be qualified as a general. I didn’t felt his supposedly amazing character at all. All he did was shout some over dramatic lines whenever they are in pinch and that was it. And the girls are like always, would fight over him. They were complete with tsundere type girl, chivalrous girl, childish girl, and so on. Typical type of girls surrounding a male lead. All of them were not likeable at all. Almost all the character was so irritating at one point.

About the ANIMATION
The only thing that was amazing about this series was the animation. In fact, this was one of the reasons why I was interested in the first place. It was not just one of the best. You can even consider the animation of it as great or even better compared to some of the most famous animes of today. It was very original and such a refreshment. The illustrations and artworks were so brilliant. It was like a breath of fresh air from your typical animation. It made all the visual effects and fight scenes so magnificent. The characters and landscapes are made amazingly and very unique.

The worst thing for a viewer to feel is to wonder why they are even watching this thing! Having an amazing animation is definitely not enough. Ah! I’ve done it again! I always do this. Thinking that because it is popular and have such an amazing animation, I would always expect an anime to be such an amazing one. I never learn. Lesson learned: Just because it is great for so many that doesn’t necessarily mean it will great for me as well.

When i started watching the anime it felt a little weird in the beginning but soon evolved into a great anime one can savor with enjoyment.

STORY Modern Japan (in an alternate world) is in a dire situation, it lacks powerful master samurai (samurai which make a pact with a general), the premonition of a dark shadow threatens it. The 'supposedly' few remaining master samurai are known to be under the control of Tokugawa Shogunate. In this situation Yagyuu Muneakira unexpectedly comes across an unusually powerful girl who falls from the sky into his arms(man! people falling from the sky is becoming a fad these days) and encounters five other samurai girls in course of time who will play a decisive role in the imminent struggle of Japan. The plot is well defined. In the initial 8 episodes ecchi, romance and comedy are beautifully depicted with action. In the last 4 episodes plot intensifies rapidly and tension escalates, there are twists and turns leading to a somewhat tragic ending. The pot is well laid out with well-paced exposition and without plot-holes. The ending however is not fully conclusive, it comes rather abruptly and nothing can be ascertained about the impending calamity(Amakusa), there's hardly any after-climax or 'epilogue'. I should also comment on the seemingly anachronistic depiction, since Japan is in 21st century in the anime but still under Tokugawa Shogunate you'll see samurai attire, swords, buildings of that time. At the same time you have maid-uniforms, telephones, trains, computers and airplanes (i think this actually adds a funny side to the anime..you got advanced computers and labs but no guns, elevators but no skyscrapers.....haha )

CHARACTERS Characterization in this anime is one of the best you'll see. This is not much about impressing emotions or thoughts but rather more about clear-cut demarcation. Each character is defined very distinctly in terms of status, ideals and actions. Character development is nice.. you'll like most characters (all their names come from famous samurai)

ANIMATION This is one of the things i really liked in this anime. The background is like oil paintings on which characters are sketched with a distinct outline(see picture above download links). This adds a unique touch which is captivating. Also the depiction of action scenes is pretty unique with an avid use of shadows/dark contrast and what appears like 'ink blots'

SOUND is good both the songs and soundtracks are fine.

ENCODE is nicely done

Enjoyable for action/ecchi/comedy fans but dont expect deep, intriguing, complicated plot or an overbearing sense of humor.